1. Field
Embodiments described below generally relate to systems for viewing video data. More specifically, some aspects concern systems for providing video data to a network browser.
2. Discussion
Generally, conventional videoconferencing systems allow at least one meeting participant to view another meeting participant during a meeting. Videoconferencing systems thereby allow businesses to conduct “face-to-face” meetings between parties that are normally located remote from one another. As a result, businesses have saved significant travel-related expenses that would have otherwise been incurred in order to conduct such meetings.
Most videoconferencing systems require the use of specialized hardware at either end of a point-to-point connection (e.g., H.323). In a typical scenario, videoconferencing equipment is professionally installed in a dedicated videoconference room in a first location and in a similarly-dedicated videoconference room in a second location. Meeting participants are summoned to their respective rooms at a scheduled meeting time, and participants in each room are able to watch a video feed of the other room during the meeting.
Webcams have been proposed as a means to provide video images of meeting participants to other meeting participants. A Webcam may connect to a Universal Serial Bus port of a personal computer and send video images to a browser that requests the images from the computer. Webcam functions are incorporated into Web-based conferencing applications such as WebEX™ and LiveMeeting™. These applications may be configured to display a low-resolution, low frames-per-second “headshot” view of a meeting participant on the desktop of another meeting participant.
Each of the foregoing systems presents inadequacies and inefficiencies. Cost, inflexibility, and infrastructure demands are primary shortcomings of the first systems described above. The above-described Web-based systems fail to provide adequate image quality, image control, security, scheduling capability, and/or administrative capability.